Curt Schilling & A Bunch Of Bums To Be Inducted Into The Red Sox Hall Of Fame

I've blogged about the Patriots Hall of Fame inductees and everybody knows that the Bruins, Celtics and Red Sox retire iconic numbers at their respective homes. I learned today though that there is also a Red Sox Hall of Fame.

The patchwork quality of this mysterious place was signified by the group selected today: pitcher Curt Schilling, groundskeeper Joe Mooney, center fielder Ellis Burks, second baseman Marty Barrett, pitchers Joe Dobson (who is probably dead) and Hubert "Dutch" Leonard (definitely long gone).

They will all be part of the Class of 2012 in an induction on Friday, August 3 at Fenway Park. That night, the Red Sox host the Minnesota Twins that night with first pitch at 7:05 p.m. so I'm assuming this will all take place before that gets started.

We can only hope that the ceremony doesn't go on too long and that Big Schill doesn't take the mic for an hour. Keep it brief Curt and please don't plug your crappy video game company or your conservative political views. Congrats!

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

One Down, One More to Go

After all the partying and parades died down, the Red Sox 2007 off-season has officially begun. Going into the winter, there were two priorities which trumped everything else: 1) sign Schilling to a incentive-laden deal so he can finish out his career in Boston and 2) resign World Series MVP Mike Lowell and avoid A-Rod like the plague that he is. I'm happy to report that the Sox can check objective one of their list: Schilling got a one-year deal for a base salary of eight million. If he reaches all the incentives in the package, he will earn $14 million.

Say what you want about Curt (and by now everyone in the region has built their own detailed opinion about him) but I think everyone would agree that he deserved this. It would be an absolute joke to see him waste one last year in some other city (he couldn't have honestly been serious during the year when he mentioned Tampa Bay as a possible landing spot). He is no longer the dominant pitcher he once was but as we saw in the playoffs, he is still quite effective, particularly on the biggest stage: October baseball. The guy has now been a World Champion three times and they've all come in the last seven seasons. He's the greatest big game pitcher of his generation. Along with all his personal accomplishments, he's becoming more and more of a leader, teacher and motivator to the young pitchers around him. Think he had anything to do with Beckett making such a gigantic leap from his first year in Boston to this year? Beckett has all the talent in the world but there's no doubt Curt helped him out with all the little things that the media and common fan isn't privy to.

While I certainly don't agree with his political views, I have to say that Curt Schilling is a breath of fresh air in this day and age of Sportscenter soundbites and YouTube. Yes, he can be a blowhard and self-important but I'll take that with everything else he does. He's a pillar of the community, he talks to the media (and even beats them to the punch by writing his own blog) and he is one of the only professional athletes I can think of in Boston or anywhere in the US that gets it. He understands how lucky he is to be paid ridiculous sums of money to play a child's game for a living. He might always have an agenda but he has a heart. How many other athletes are consistently interesting? Most have rocks for brains and couldn't care less about anything outside their little bubble. For all of his quirks, Curt Schilling will always be one of my favorite Red Sox players. He's helped deliver two World Series titles in four years and who knows what will happen next season?

Two games away from glory

One of the tell-tale signs of a great team is when they can win games in many different ways. The Sox had been pounding the ball the last three games. They found themselves in an old-fashioned pitchers duel last night but still came out on top, 2-1 in game two of the 2007 World Series.

Curt Schilling vs. rookie Ubaldo Jimenez is a classic mismatch in such a big game. No question, Jimenez (he of the 100 mph fastball and dirty off-speed stuff) has an electric arm while Schilling is surviving on smarts and guile. Was there any doubt that Sox would do just enough to pull this one out? Chalk it up to 2004 or the team's success this year, whatever the reason the Sox just have an air of inevitability about them in these playoffs. When they're on (working opposing hurlers and getting good starts from its rotation), they're nearly impossible to beat.


The Rockies scored in the top of the first but the Sox slowly waited out Ubaldo, scoring one in the fourth and fifth. He was gone before the end of the fifth, having only given up two runs on three hits but he walked five. Schilling was gone one out into the sixth, surrendering only the one run on four hits, striking out four. The MVP of this game for the Sox was Hideki Okajima. He fell apart in the second half of the season as he wore down but last night, he looked like the lights out Okajima of May-July that made the All-Star game. Hideki got seven outs without allowing a hit or walk while striking out four. Papelbon recorded the last four outs, giving up one hit and striking out two.


Matt Holliday was the bulk of the offense for the Rockies, he had four of their five hits. As a team they struck out ten times and left 14 on base. Seeing them in the dugout in the late innings, they hardly resembled the freight train that reeled off 21 of 22 wins to make it here. They looked rattled, they look over matched.


The Sox scored its first run on a Varitek sac fly which plated Lowell. Lowell had the biggest hit as his RBI double scored Ortiz. Drew was on base all four times he came to the plate: two hits, a walk and hit by a pitch.


Once again, after Schilling left the game, you sensed that this could be his last game starting for the Red Sox at Fenway. Unless, this series comes back to Fenway (unlikely), he is probably done here. One more big game performance like that will look good as he tries to get into the Hall of Fame.


The series shifts to Colorado tomorrow night and as my buddy KC said, "all the Sox have to do is win one of the next two games because Beckett in game five is a lock of the century." So there you go. Matsuzaka in game three and Lester in game four don't exactly conjure up images of shutouts or no-hitter's. However, they're facing journeyman Josh Fogg and Aaron Cook (coming off a long injury layoff) so who knows what to expect from those two. I have a feeling the next two games will be slug-fests. The Sox clearly have the better bullpen so things couldn't look better after two games.

game #172

Get your cliche book ready, it all comes down to this game sports fans. After 162 regular season games and nine playoff games, the Sox and Indians face-off tonight in a do-or-die game seven at Fenway. The Sox rolled over the Tribe, 12-2 last night in a game that didn't even seem that close. J.D. Drew was the hero (no joke) as he hit a first inning grand slam and later added another RBI. It was 10-1 Boston after three innings, meaning they took all the intrigue out of this one. Carmona couldn't get out of the third inning and the Indians bullpen that had been so dominant suddenly looks tired and very vulnerable. The only lineup change was Ellsbury (finally!) played for Crisp. Hopefully the rookie gets back out there tonight.


It's like I said a few days ago, playoff series can change in the blink of an eye. The Sox were dead in the water, down 3-1 while Cleveland had all the momentum in the world. However, the Indians failed to slay the Red Sox while they were down. Instead they've been pounded the last two games as Boston's lineup looks fearsome top to bottom while most every Indian outside of Victor Martinez looks to have no confidence at the plate. Travis Hafner might as well just take game seven off, he's of no use to the Tribe at this point.


Schilling shook off some early shakiness (a solo shot by Martinez) and went seven innings, giving up both runs on six hits and striking out five. As usual with Schill, he didn't walk anyone. He got a great ovation from the Fenway crowd when he walked back to the dugout after the seventh. You hope for his sake, he gets another chance to pitch (in the World Series) before his Sox career is likely over. Looks doubtful that the club will bring him back after this season but that's a matter for another day. Game two of the ALCS was a hiccup for Big Schill, last night he proved once more that he lives for the big moment. You can love him or hate him but you have to give the guy credit: he's the greatest big game pitcher of his generation.


Dice-K gets the ball tonight against Jake Westbrook. Common sense says that Westbrook, who pitched well and won in game three can't possibly repeat that performance. He's just not that good and the Sox have simply worn out much better pitchers-Sabathia and Carmona. While it would be great to see Dice-K pitch well tonight, the thing the Sox have going is that they can call on a host of pitchers-Wakefield, Beckett, Okajima, Papelbon, et. all to relieve Matsuzaka as soon as he shows he's done/doesn't have anything. I'm not a betting man but you have to like the Sox' chances tonight. They seem to have everything going in their favor at the moment but you can never what will happen in huge situations like this one. Should be a dandy.

Smell ya later Angels

Well that was pretty easy huh? Thanks to a combination of factors: Beckett's dominant game one performance, the Angels rash of injuries/lack of hitters and the Ortiz-Ramirez duo (baseball's undisputed best 1-2 punch), the Sox rolled in Game 3, 9-1 in Anaheim. Curt Schilling proved once again that he's a big game pitcher, even though he lacks the power stuff from most of his career. Big Schill pitched seven scoreless innings, giving up six hits, with one walk and four strikeouts. His postseason record is now 9-2 with a 1.93 ERA.

Ortiz and Manny capped off a great series for both as they went back-to-back in the fourth, giving the Sox a 2-0 lead that they'd never relinquish. Ortiz had the big two-run homer in the first game and Manny provided the walk-off three-run bomb on Friday night. For the short series, Papi was 5-for-7 with 5 runs, 6 walks, 2 HR's and 3 RBIs. Manny was 3-for-8 with 3 runs, 5 walks, 2 HR's and 4 RBIs. It seems like they both were never in the zone at the same time during the season. Ortiz battled myriad injuries all season and Manny took most of September off. It looks like both of them are tearing the cover off the ball at the exact same time which is bad news for opposing teams.

This never really seemed like a series. Beckett was lights out in game one and game two was close but you had the feeling the Sox would pull it out in Fenway. Yesterday was a forgone conclusion with Schilling against one of the Weavers (albeit the better one, Jered). The Sox move on to the ALCS, which begins Friday in Boston. The Yankees staved off elimination last night with a win but it's hard to see them beating Cleveland two more times (particularly if they have to face Sabathia/Carmona again). My gut instinct is I'd rather see the Sox face the Indians. It's time for someone else to make the ALCS, not just the Yankees and Sox. As fans we certainly eat up the rivalry but something different would be nice. Bigger picture, I think the Sox matchup better with the Indians since the Yankees owned us the second half of 2007 and they'd have big momentum if they can come back from down 2-0. We'll see how it plays out but you have to be happy if you're a Red Sox fan, they look very balanced and solid at the perfect time.